Single Room Heat Emitters

Single Room Heat Emitters

Mini-Split Heat Pumps

Ductless Mini-Split, Cold Climate Heat Pumps (CCHPs) are single room heaters. A conduit, which houses the power cable, refrigerant tubing, suction tubing, and a condensate drain  runs to each … Read more

Wall-vented gas heater

Direct-Vent Gas Heaters

Direct-vent gas heaters have the advantage of combusting the fuel right in the room where heat is needed, instead of remotely like a central heating furnace. Some models … Read more

Electric Baseboard Heater

Electric Baseboard

Even though electric baseboard heaters work on resistance heat which does not have the leveraging effect of a heat pump, they have certain advantages that make them a … Read more

Wood Stove

A wood stove works great in a home with an open floor plan. In addition to the ambience and comfort of a cozy fire, they have the advantage … Read more

Wood Pellet Stove

A wood pellet stove has a few advantages over traditional wood stoves: A wood pellet stove doesn’t need to be tended as often as a wood stove. Depending … Read more

Fireplace Inserts

A fire in your fireplace gives the room a comforting glow and does warm a small area. The EPA estimates that 42% of fireplaces aren’t being used. That’s … Read more

Fireplace

The warmth of an open fire resonates deeply in our species, but 90% of the fire heat goes up the chimney and much of the heat in the … Read more

Miscellaneous Electric Heaters

There are a variety of electric resistance heat emitters on the market. Wall and ceiling mounted units are typically found in bathrooms. Envi wall heater. Some electric heaters … Read more

Heat Loss

The two variables of of heat loss are a) geographic location, and b) building performance. Together they will determine the quantity of heat needed to maintain comfort.

Geographic location drives the building's “design day." Your design day is the difference in temperature between the inside and outside of your house on the theoretical coldest day of the year; so in the northeast we calculate a day that is -10ºf outside and comfortable 68ºf inside. This is referred to as the “delta-T” value. A typical delta-T for the northeast is 78º.

Building performance is the big one because there’s nothing we can do about geographic location. Today we can build a really tight thermal envelope, but most of our heating pollution comes from the millions of homes built over the last 100-150 years. We are getting better at buttoning-up those old buildings with insulation and weather sealing but weatherization is still  never going to be enough to overcome the heat loss from a 78º delta-T. That means we need heating systems that can quickly put a whole lot of heat back into those old houses on the days that are really cold.